We can be saved

If we build a bridge.
Not a tower or a bomb or a dam or a nuclear power plant.
If we build a bridge.
Not a riot or a genocide or a war or a conquest.
If we build a bridge.
Not a clear cutting or a mass poisoning or an extracting or a mining.
If we build a bridge.
Not a mass extinction.

A bridge that anyone can cross.  A bridge that is built by all of us.  7 billion+ strong.  It is built on a foundation of love with beams made of hope and courage and bolted together by trust, ingenuity, imagination and integrity.  A bridge that finally sees the preciousness of unique and each person's individuality as equal.  A bridge where diversity adds beauty and colour to the design.  A bridge that leads us from the banks of the status quo, over impossible to a new land we haven't yet seen. 

It's impossible.
If we don't work together.
It's impossible.
If we wait too long to realize the potential that is innate in each of us.
It's impossible.
If we're not willing to entertain the power of love to transform and heal.
It's impossible.
If we don't start with ourselves and start building our relationships with others.  Old and young.  Male and Female.  Conservative and Liberal.  Capitalists/Free-market advocates and Socialists/Communists.  White and Black and Red and Yellow.  Rural and Urban.  Christian and Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist and Jain and Sikh and etc.  We're all in this together.

This is personal.  This is global.  This is it.  Now or never.  Let's make it worth living for.

Happy Women's Day

Lately there are so many things that I want to write about!  I've been writing raps and poems and getting some ideas and emotions out.  I still have ambitions to write a book but I haven't gotten  past page 5 yet.  It's something that I feel would be important to write. . .but it hasn't aroused my passion yet. . .writing the descriptive, background bits isn't nearly as exciting as directly relating news/stories to friends and family.  Maybe if I can try to incorporate the story-telling aspect a bit more. . . .hmm. . .anyway.

In the spirit of International Women's Day I would like to talk about a topic very close to my heart.  Women.
The older I get and the more informed I am of world issues and situations and cultures and classes and all of those things, the more I understand that the world is a very hard place for a woman.  I know that it is controversial to say so, but I would almost argue that it's getting worse, at least in Western culture.
More and more women are used in advertising with less and less clothes and less and less importance given to anything but their bodies.
Compensated dating seems to be becoming normalized and is almost glorified by some all-girl Japanese teen groups like AKB48 in their lyrics.

I went to see my friend's play a few weeks ago which was a kind of spinoff of the Vagina Monologues and there was a performance about sex workers.  It really confused me.  It's not that I think sex workers don't deserve rights.  That's obviously not the case.  Sex workers should certainly be given equal protection, should not face discrimination, should have equal rights and liberties like everyone else (ok, "like everyone else" is debatable. . .since practically speaking most people aren't given the same rights. . .even though legally they are entitled to them, but that's not the point I'm trying to make).  For me, that is a non-issue and SHOULD be commonplace.  The issue I have is that it seems that more and more women are looking to sex work at younger ages as a means to procure funds.  Whether it be for tuition, Coach bags, spending money or taking care of a young family.  This seems to be almost encouraged by the media. . .perhaps not in a direct way, but by promoting women that were or are sex workers in reality TV shows or other Hollywood type ventures.

I guess the issues that I have here, if they're not obvious already is that it's setting a very dangerous precedent for young viewers of TV and the Internet who are bombarded with these images and lifestyles and made to think that they might be normal reflections of people.  That these are the women who are on TV, in the public eye and so these are the women you should aspire to be.  Women in popular everything have to fit into this extremely narrow definition of "beautiful" and then promote themselves as being focused on pleasing a man in whatever way he might desire.  It has nothing to do with their brain.  It has nothing to do with what is important to them or what they want to see for their country or the world or girls in general or their daughters.  Where are the strong, intelligent, multifaceted, powerful and respectable women?  Where are the Claire Huxtables??

Not only that, but it's concerning to me that women see sex work as the most viable option.  The economy is bad and it's hard to get a job and pay for things that you want (that you are told you should be able to afford because everyone on TV has one) or sometimes that you need to advance yourself in life (hopefully). . .so sex work offers a solution.  But why is that the only solution?  Why is that seen as the best solution for the young girls in our society who are often times smart and going to college or university?  What about their male contemporaries?  Are they having the same problems with funds?  What are they doing instead?  Drugs?  Crime?

To me these are very concerning issues that I feel pressured to accept for some reason and I'm not sure why.  I'm not especially religious and I don't have any problem with sexual freedom but I think there are some deeper issues here that should be addressed and that we should be more concerned about as a society.  If we're already at this point, what is the next step for future generations?

Cycle of Poverty

If you are a poor woman from Nepal, from a poor community with a poor family who is struggling to make ends meet. . .
probably you have no access to education
probably your family will be expected to pay a dowry to the family of the man who marries you
probably you feel desperate and hopeless

If a recruiter comes to your village offering you a job in India, where you can work as someone's house girl, learn to read and write, make enough money to send home to your parents and pay for your dowry. . .
probably your family will have to pay the recruiter a relatively large sum to secure the position for you 
probably you will feel hopeful and cling to that hope
probably your family will see it as a way to give their child a better future

probably the recruiter is lying

If you go with that recruiter and they do get you across the border into India or another country. . .
probably you will be sold for a relatively large sum to someone else
probably you will have your documents taken away
probably you will not be given paid work
probably you will suffer abuse emotionally, physically, spiritually, sexually
likely you will be working in a brothel
likely you will be beaten or physically abused
likely you will never see your family again
maybe you will escape

If you get rescued by an NGO that is working to stop human trafficking. . .
probably the NGO will recieve a large sum of money from donors (like the European Union) to help you
probably you will be given a safe place to stay
probably you will be repatriated to Nepal
probably you will be treated well, though perhaps patronizingly by workers there
probably you will be "rehabilitated" to go back into society although, because of the cultural emphasis on virginal wives and stigma attached to sex, your prospects for marriage are not very good nor are your chances of procuring your livelihood
probably you will be returned to your village and your family who may or may not accept you
probably you will not receive any education, training or instruction that will help you make a better life for yourself back in the place you began

Since the same conditions are still in place in your village, it is likely that the same process will happen again.

All along the cycle, money is changing hands and good paying jobs are created for everyone but the exploited person.  The jobs and the money is there because of the exploited person and yet, they don't see any of it.
There is a market for this, clearly, and where there is a market there are people who are equally desperate or else evil, who are taking advantage of it.  Even in NGOs, the focus, often times is only to rescue girls without looking at the bigger picture; "why are these people so poor, desperate and hopeless in the first place?" No steps are taken to remedy those problems.

The factors are different but the same general situation repeats itself anywhere there is poverty, desperation and hopelessness.  Those 3 things are increasingly prevelant in our society.  If we don't stand up against injustices and the horrible treatment of humans, no matter who they are or where they are from, we are setting the precedent that it's tolerable and thus we invite the same treatment onto ourselves.
We take the stability of our lives, social status, wealth, health and well being for granted.  Everything is constantly changing, faster and faster as time goes on.  In one moment everything could be turned completely upside down.